Origami Mana - Law's Collections 11
by Harmonica Smile
Summary: The cuts of a bounty too great or small can be a thousandfold. Law addresses the situation. Law tells Marco a story of his time sailing to Zou with the Strawhats, the Barto Club, and those bounty posters, and his own crew's disappointment at not having a known price on their heads. Humour. Not an overt shipping fic. No angst, baby. Canon-divergent AU and not.


**A/N:** This is set in a post-canon, post Luffy as pirate king, Marco and Law world. But the main story refers to events on the Going Luffy Sempai. Therefore, it's not strictly part of the _Repossession_ series, as Law didn't make it to Zou in that series. A hybrid of if we followed canon, and an AU world where Law and Marco end up together. Hope it makes sense. It mostly deals with a twist on canon events, and only touches on Law and Marco's relationship, as it's established.

* * *

 **Origami Mana**

* * *

"What'd you do to make Bartolomeo hate you so much?"

"Apart from loving Luffy?"

"Hey, dial back. We don't talk about that."

Both men sat upright against the headboard, ankles crossed, black hairs pricking shins. Marco reading _Popular_ _Mechanics_ , Law thumbing through the latest _Coin Collectibles Auction Guide_. The Heart removed the pencil tucked behind his ear and circled a lot in the catalogue, returned it to its resting place. Marco eyed the motorbikes. Sure would beat flying that lazy-arsed, flop-limbed doctor everywhere when he'd lost all his ability due to overuse. He acted like he was the only healer around at times.

Law peered over his glasses at Marco. He knew the Phoenix didn't really care, cos it was true. It wasn't like either of their lives _weren't_ impacted and imploded by interactions they'd had with others.

"It _doesn't_ mean I'd give you up in a heartbeat." He knocked a leg against Marco's own, spaced his thumb and index finger to show just how short a pulse was. To the contrary, they were in it for the very long haul.

"Cos' you're scared of Zoro."

"Mmm. Anyway—" Law laughed, glanced at the turkey dressing Marco wore around his leg, kept his own leg pressed to his calf. Still hadn't got an explanation for that weird decoration despite all these years. Maybe it was the same kind of reasoning for inking the bridges of his own feet with his least favourite design. "— More to it than that."

"Oh?" Marco turned a page. Lewd and crude and totally unforgiven, that was his Heart pirate. Except he was really as straight as an arrow in love, loyalty and all that lay below. And just like the ocean floor and the creatures that burrowed into its sand, could be hard to fathom.

"So, did I ever tell you the tale of Origami and Pride?" Law pulled the pencil from behind his ear again, licked the stub. "It features ninjas." Shachi was the storyteller in the Heart crew, and Law had picked up a few of his tricks.

"Do tell." Marco turned another page. Pride as in rainbows? Pride as in lions? Law's stories could rival Usopp's for their twists and outlandishness. But, there _was_ that time he sliced off Shanks' other arm, and Marco'd witnessed that, so he gave the Heart captain's stories credence, just like Proud Mary and the river. Law'd sliced off his own head in an experiment once. Marco hadn't seen that one, but Penguin verified it.

Ninjas, eh?

Law circled a doubloon, a ha'penny, a rare beri coin with Garp's face, and crossed out the currency of Dressrosa. With King Riku Dold now in power, he should support it of course, but it was old currency of the _fuffufuffu_ variety — resembled gold, but it tapped hollow against the teeth like tinfoil. However, Dressrosa's currency _had_ depreciated. It was the price to pay in world economics for having a fair ruler. The manipulators continued to manipulate, but were held a little more responsible for their actions in this new pirate king era than they had been.

"So, there was the time I was sailing with the Barto Club and the stronger half of the Straw hat crew, though they've all got their own strengths."

"Like Shachi and Bepo."

"Quite. And Black Leg. Vergo fractured the cook's leg, but you'd be stupid to not want him on your side. Any of them on your side."

Marco lay the magazine flat against his very desirable abs. Not that Law was paying any attention to just how fit he was. Too keen on nurturing his hoarding instincts to turn them his way.

Marco guessed he put up with Law cos Ace had worn him out with all the activity in the early years. But he recognised that he _was_ lucky and privileged. The reward for 'putting up' with him went well beyond the physical payoff, the pleasurable. That occurred, of course. After negotiation, and they still negotiated, and it could be exhausting. But the back and forth retained and maintained the companionship that Marco wouldn't give up for the world. He'd give up the carnal for the familiarity he had with Law.

Law's big and index toes lightly clasped the adornment on Marco's leg and tugged it. "Paper art. Who taught you?"

Marco caught the glint of his firefly eyes still exploring the unknown. Law had enough trouble knowing himself. You peeled back one layer, and another was waiting. But no-one could ever fully know the other even if they tried to convince themselves otherwise.

Marco had learnt that sometimes he could lean across — that the way he wanted to hold Law's skin was the way Law wanted to be held — and all would be well, but he had to listen, carefully. Law threw caution to the wind on occasion, all instinct and impulse, and the turnout was tremendous like some Beat poem recitation. But, it was fleeting. And when and why it happened was because they sat side by side in the bed and _could_ wait and even walk away when the other just wasn't in the mood.

"On the Barto Club ship leaving Dressrosa, heading towards Zou, Bartolomeo only had time for Luffy and the Strawhats. They were his heroes."

"Do I detect jealousy?"

"If you did, it wouldn't be directed toward Bartolomeo."

Law took Marco's hand now, his catalogue loose on his lap, and the Phoenix pushed his own head back into the wall and closed his lids. Their relationship came with the fissure and acceptance of thoughts and feelings over past lovers. All were a natural and forced part of the final product. Everything needed its moment of vulnerability, like a bowl removed from the kiln and plunged into straw or water immediately to invite cracks and burns and pits.

"Old man," Law laughed, freeing his hand from Marco's and brushing it against his face so he'd look his way, dropping it just as quickly when the Phoenix turned. He knew he'd die well before Marco had seen out his lifetimes. That he'd be the crack in someone else's tea cup, cast and shared with Marco's future lovers. The blond moved closer, the magazine falling between them, scrunching up its pages. Law dog-eared his catalogue and put it on the side table. Removed his glasses and left them, upside down, arms unfolded, next to it.

The afternoon sun lit the room. How did pirates have time for all this cuddling, even if retired? A successful Devil-fruit user had a shorter lifespan but lots of spoils of war to pad out an early retirement. Marco and Law both still worked of course. Running a bar in the village below, and Law had his medical practice, but they really didn't need to, except to make sure they didn't grow fat and lazy. And things could change in an instant. Their lives were relaxed but they worked to shore up against coups and possible genocides.

.

"Zou," Marco said. Eyes open, staring at Law.

"Right. We're sitting on the deck heading to Zou and Zoro reads an article about the Strawhat bounties skyrocketing after Dressrosa. You know how fanatical they are, right?"

"The Barto Club Pirates?"

Law nodded. Devotees to the deranged.

"Yeah."

"If I suggested anything. Setting sail, requesting supplies, they'd shut me down. Throw a Straw Hat name into the ring . . . tah-dah! Things got moving."

"You are a surly bastard."

Law nodded. "I am. Roronoa's not so different." He knew his please and thank yous, and used them on occasion.

"Mmm. Guess you should've liberated a few more kingdoms rather than being driven by the purely personal."

"Guess I should've."

Marco took a peek at a crumpled and creased picture of a Moto-Guzzi, squashed between them. Almost as sexy as Law. He returned his attention to the surgeon. "As we all should've. Might be sitting next to the pirate king right now."

"Heh." Law rolled over, all long armed gibbon, onto the Whitebeard commander. "You know I'm not into all that ranking stuff."

Marco pushed Law's hair back, his hand cupping the gold in his earlobes. Law's chin rested on his stomach. "I know, _Captain_. Still, it woulda been kinda fun to be a consort."

"As if you would've stood for that, and there'd be no time for this." Law's placed his cupped hands under his chin, his palms against Marco's skin.

"There never _is_ time with you, doctor."

"Doctor," Law repeated. He freed a hand, and tapped Marco's chest. "Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Doctor."

"Doctor Who?"

Law laughed and kissed Marco's knuckles, his hand still near his face.

"You're weird as fuck, Law."

He took it as a compliment. "Anyway, hold me like you're trying not to fall out of a hammock?"

"Like a clubbed baby seal?" What self-respecting sailor couldn't stay in a hammock?

"Yeah, all romantic and blood-soaked and immobile like that."

"You got it, but you gotta reposition."

Law rose, Marco pulled a pillow behind him and lay down. Law was light on him as he drew him closer, despite the muscle he packed. His hands lay loosely over his lower back.

The Heart rested his head against Marco's chest, beard scratching the skin. "Why does Bartolomeo hate me? Maybe I added to it."

"Apart from being a surly bastard."

"Yeah, well some people like sauerkraut with their sausage." Law stared up at Marco—the Phoenix close-lipped, but smiling down at him. He was one of them. Law turned his head again.

.

"Barto said he'd framed all the bounties, and hung them in a fan club gallery. The Strawhats raced in to see them. Nico-ya, Robo-ya, Mugiwara of course, and God."

"Zoro?"

"Yeah, Roronoa too, but he strolled in."

"Yours wasn't displayed?"

"Bartolomeo let me know he'd thrown it away, but also about the increase and so I knew I was no longer protected from the marines as a shichibukai."

"Good." Marco raked his fingers along the cleft at Law's skull, though his hair. He couldn't stand being with someone who'd deliberately collaborated with the government for their own gain. Their own greed. Maybe Law _had_ helped liberate a few lands.

"It served a purpose."

"I know."

"So, who taught you the paper art? You never answered."

"An old man on the crew. Taught me scrimshaw as well, whittling." With one arm still around Law, Marco subconsciously patted his pocket where he used to keep a whittling stick and a knife. He still carried them around now and then.

Law thought back to the chimney Marco had whittled for his matchstick model of a future house. They'd been sailing with Shanks at the time, under his general protection.

"It's not paper, either. You know that, after all this time. You think it'd withstand time if it was made of pulp?"

"Looks like paper." Law was cheeky against his skin. "As if you can't wait to get into the oven."

"What kind of thinking is that?"

"Half-baked?"

Marco groaned. First knock-knock jokes, now puns. "C'mon." He tugged the side of Law's ear again. "The day's getting on. Mercury'll want her walk, and we've got things to do before opening the bar. And it's for modesty's sake, you know, those frills. A bit like the valances hiding the ankles of tables in the Victorian era."

Law put the thought out of mind that Marco was indeed enticing enough to eat. The Phoenix's self-reliance was a strong point for Law, but he was never far from getting what he wanted when he wanted it. Law occupied a far more nebulous land.

Less lemming-like, he sat up, rolled off Marco, crawled up the bed, and leant back toward the headboard again. Marco also rose, pulling Law to his side. He ran a hand under the Heart pirate shirt, more subdued after all these years, but still littered and embroidered with the symbols that spelt the story of Law's life. Lives. Law popped a button for him, but stilled Marco's hand below the cloth's surface, and left his own flattened palm against the cloth, against the ridges of the commander's fingers.

"Franky and God-ya, Robo-ya and Usopp, were at odds. Man, you shoulda heard the bitching." Law slanted into Marco, encouraged access. A good day then.

* * *

 **oOOo**

* * *

The kerfuffle amongst his own crew when Bepo's bounty was posted was a headache Law wouldn't soon forget. Five hundred beri. Five times higher than the Strawhat tanuki. Though, with the Big Mom saga, Chopper's must've increased. He was part of Luffy's crew, the crew that helped Mugiwara become pirate king. Ironically, once that came to pass, bounties were just a scrap of paper, testament to faded glories. Law turned to his catalogue. They could fetch a pretty Garp-infused penny in the collectibles market though.

Bepo's bounty was posted as five hundred beri. Law's rose to five-hundred million after Dressrosa. There was something comforting in the decimal system. The new bounty poster also featured Bepo. The Mink was so proud.

Long before the Dressrosan increase he'd almost had to quell a mutiny as Shachi, Penguin, Ikkaku, Clione and Uni had come to him, determined to demonstrate their lethality and loyalty. He knew. Of course he knew.

Shachi had taken out his overhead light with a slingshot to show his sniping prowess. Ikkaku picked the lock to his chambers in less than two seconds. It was unwise to know that Penguin's skills with a scalpel outside of surgery or a non-devil's fruit situation rivalled his own, and Uni. He'd recruited Uni for his skills with toxins. What a waste it had been to slip laxatives into Law's coffee to prove it. Caffeine encouraged bowel movements anyway.

For a moment, he wasn't even sure that they'd meant well and were sweetly, clumsily misguided. Maybe they were actually trying to off him.

Clione demonstrated his disappearing talent once Law was able to get off the toilet long enough to dress his crew down. Thank god Jean Bart had no wish to prove to his captain just how strong his bear hug was compared to Bepo's. That was another thing he believed without needing to be shown.

It was _good_ that the government didn't know of his crew's abilities. The more he hung out with Strawhat, the more the government learnt about him. Law, that is, not Strawhat, and flying under the radar fast became a pipe dream.

Sharing a fighting arena with Smoker hadn't been among his more clandestine moves, not to mention taking on G-5. Fujitora had been pivotal in his imprisonment twice. The fucker. At least the admiral had waylaid his death the first time, but it wasn't fun being a target, even if part of his job was targeting others. There were times when Law craved Cora's fruit. Envied the ability to slip into any situation undetected. And the Heart Pirates without bounties should've known the advantages of anonymity.

It was a strange point of pride, though, and most of the crews in the New World used a bounty as some kind of barometer of strength and awe. The holders of high bounties could be awesome. Katakuri, from what he knew of him, was a monster who'd fully earned all those zeroes after his name. That Luffy defeated him was yet another miracle, reflected in Mugiwara's increased bounty. Doflamingo's bounty as a shichibukai had been stagnant, but he was also a monster, so it was better to study the deeds of the man, rather than deeds about the man.

But his crew would _not_ be appeased, demanding recognition for their Acts of Atrocity, and Law didn't fancy spending any more time running to the john as they came up with plans to subvert the modesty he wished for his team, so he took as many bounty posters as he could from his own collection, and others he'd gathered from whatever town they'd come across on their travels, and applied his powers of manipulation, decoupage and collage.

He removed a 'Sha' here (Shakky still had a poster—and it hurt Law to slice it up. Imagine what it could collect at a Bounty Poster convention), a 'chi' here (Hachi, also still with a price), a 'pe' from some North Blue pirate, a 'n' from "Namur" and the 'gu' and 'in' from here and there. He rearranged letters and faces. He folded the bounty posters — creasing and combining when he had to — into a huge origami lotus flower. Ten sheets for the petals and ten sheets for the leaves, and he knew that took him out of Buddhist precepts of perfection and luck, but anything for some peace and quiet.

It was quite beautiful. Each and every sheet, hinting at the names of his crew, had a bounty figure of fifty thousand beri, which was a hundred times higher than the genuine price on Bepo's furry head, and ten thousand times lower than his future bounty, but it'd do. He had twenty crew after all. He couldn't stroke every ego.

He knew they weren't convinced, but who could resist a captain's devotion or a lotus? He'd made the flower with his own blunt nails, weathering a million paper cuts just to ease their anguish at being ignored. No matter how killer and stealth he assured them they were, and that that was how he wanted them to be, they longed for the kind of attention and persecution that only the World Government could dispense.

He made a few origami shuriken too, the ninja starred weapon, just for the fun of it, and his crew were so taken with them, Ikkaku included, that they sat him down at the table, turning it into an instant craft corner, and insisted Law teach them how to make them. All was forgiven.

* * *

 **oOOo**

* * *

"I did the same for the Strawhats. Franky's strangulation of Usopp was continuous, didn't let up, and we all know who would've been tasked with that revival? Yeah, I was recovering from Doflamingo dragging me into the very oesophagus of Hades. Like fuck I had the energy for that."

Marco held him close against him, breathed against his neck, his hand still strong against his belly, and Law's hand firm against the mound under his shirt. "That's what I love about you Law. Always so understanding."

"Yeah." Law didn't slump. It was too long ago. He and Marco and Law by himself had been through too much. "I barely made it out of Dressrosa in one piece."

"In the pursuit of One Piece."

"Hazard of the job, yeah." Law tipped his head back so that Marco felt it against the curve of his cheek. "Everyone was pretty cut up. No clean fights came out of those battles."

Marco wondered if he could get Law to show him how to make origami shuriken.

"It didn't change things. I'm used to bedlam. We're used to bedlam, right?"

Marco laughed beside him, the air ghosting across Law's face. "Try having sixteen divisions, Whitebeard's fleet. Not one ship. Not sixteen ships. But a massive fleet of ships."

Law coloured slightly, chewed at his lip. "Yeah, I wouldn't be able to make enough lotus flowers to satisfy all of them. Luckily you guys were notorious enough to have bounties up the wazoo."

Marco dropped his hand from Law's front, and brought it so that it rested between them again, shoulders close. Law took it. Those who'd attacked Whitebeard's crew were both foolish and without honour.

"My crew's plenty enough. Twenty-strong, you know that, and the Straw hat crew of nine, at that time, were like my twenty multiplied by four, squared. Like Whitebeard's fleet squared. The complaining, and Usopp's panic." He ran a hand over his face. "Made my fillings sing. I didn't even go into that room until later, but his squawking filled every corner of the ship."

"Nico Robin or Zoro didn't try to stop Franky from snuffing out Usopp?"

"Ah, I think unless someone's on their deathbed, it's a bit of live and let live until they die with that crew. And then they intervene just before the blackest hour arrives."

"Good to know."

"Yeah, they're maniacs, but you want them in your corner."

Marco didn't say that they were already well and truly in his corner due to Ace, his past lover, being Luffy's brother, but Law was aware.

"So, Barto had this gallery with framed autographs from the Strawhat crew. The fan club lay down a red carpet so the Strawhats could admire the pictures. The autographs . . . they could barely write." He felt Nico Robin made hers as simple as possible for the benefit of the Barto Club rather than any reflection on her own abilities. Law turned his face Marco's way.

Marco pressed his lips together. Not in disapproval. He'd thought as much. Not so unusual in the years that followed on from the Void Century. Limiting education meant limiting knowledge, and increased the chances to groom malleable minds for propaganda. Some of the young sidestepped it. Were victims of it.

"I only slipped Robo-ya, Nami-ya, God and Chopper's bounties from their frames. I didn't touch the autographs."

"Bartolomeo worships them all equally?"

"Worships Luffy like anyone in their right mind worships chocolate mousse."

"I don't like chocolate mousse."

Law released his fingers from Marco's own and patted his shoulder. "And I'm so glad you're not part of that cult."

"You love chocolate mousse."

"Cult members can reform."

* * *

 **oOOo**

* * *

"I eased these four posters from their frames and, interspersing them with some of the Barto Club posters—"

"Wait. You used the posters of Bartolomeo's crew?"

"Yeah, well he would've killed me if I'd touched anything with Luffy's name on it. He'd thrown mine away and my collection was on the Polar Tang, and man, the noise. It was for the _benefit_ of the Strawhat crew, and everyone else's sanity. Or my sanity at the least. I think he should've understood that."

Marco nodded. Of course.

"It was an eight-petalled lotus flower this time, no leaves, and Usopp's bounty went down after my rearrangement, which he was both relieved and incredibly pissed-off about. Tony-ya couldn't say anything, nor Nami, being in Zou. But I think Chopper would've liked that I added a few noughts to the price on his head. Nami would've taken it as some kind of incentive to charge me, so I didn't mess with hers too much, even if she wasn't there. That woman has eyes at the back of her head and, most importantly, Franky's bounty not only went over the one hundred million mark, it seemed to trump Usopp's."

"God got himself quite the reputation after Dressrosa."

"Saved us from Sugar, and gained the devotion of not only the Tontatta dwarves, but all the pirates she'd turned into toys." Cavendish. Bartolomeo. Most of Luffy's new fleet.

"He was responsible for them regaining their form and memories?"

"By whichever means. Who knows what they were, but Doflamingo wanted his head on a stick. His Dressrosa bounty in Doflamingo's sick game, where the townsfolk hunted us all down, far eclipsed both Luffy's and my own. That of Sabo and King Riku Dold as well."

"I can see why he'd be pissed off with you decreasing his bounty."

"He was pissing his pants that it had increased, and Franky was doing the marines' work for them."

"Fair enough." Marco scrabbled between them and pulled out the magazine that Law had well and truly squashed. It was getting in the way. He tossed it to his own bedside table where it fell to the floor.

Law followed the trajectory. Returned to the story. "I was respectful. I set up a small shrine in front of the gallery and placed the lotus flower on top, Lit a few candles and sticks of incense."

Law was cross legged beside Marco now, the hand not holding Marco's flat in his lap with thumb and middle finger joined.

"Your meditative side is so little known."

The grin spread across the upstart's face.

"Guess I shouldn't have left the frames empty. Should've removed them altogether. Don't know that I would've been detected otherwise." He'd wished for Clione's skills at the time.

"Even with a great big lotus flower made out of bounty posters in front of the other posters on display?"

"Heh." Law rubbed at the back of his hair. "Maybe the Barto Club were just upset I'd used their posters." If it wasn't for those pesky kids.

"Understandable. You know the validation seafarers get from those bounties."

"Easy enough to get a price on your head." And pretty difficult to get rid of one. "AndSeafarers? Barto's crew were land-based. " Law's laugh was a puff of derision.

"How'd they take it?"

"Franky cried. He's very sentimental."

"You made a friend there."

He had. Once Franky stopped strangling Usopp, and Barto had stopped strangling him, Franky treated him to a bro-hug that rivalled Jean-Bart's hypothetical embrace.

"I changed his picture a bit too. I mean, you could only have snippets of faces and names. The important thing was the monetary figure, but I made it look more like Franky as we know him rather than whatever outdated photo the marines had on their database."

Marco looped his fingers together, and placed his hands behind his head. "How bout the others?"

* * *

 **oOOo**

* * *

Zoro wandered in. The lotus altar reminded him of living at the Dojo and the times they'd spend at the temple or shrine. There was some nice work put into that origami, and Nami's pose was kind of obscured. Hah. Just as well she wasn't here to see it. But the surgeon really would pay. There was no way of escaping Nami's calculations or all-seeing eye. Zoro wasn't a praying man, but he nodded at the effort, and directed the curls of incense smoke toward him with a few waves of his hand. Everything required a form of discipline.

Relief flooded Usopp's every fibre. Franky hadn't let go of his neck for the time it had taken Law to steal the posters and assemble his homage. It was getting difficult to move around the ship, and he'd accompanied Franky _everywhere_. There were some things he just couldn't un-see. They viewed the flower together, choker and chokee, before realising that four of the bounty posters were missing. Franky wiped a grateful tear from his eye, and dropped the hapless sharp-shooter.

Coughing and hacking, Usopp reminded himself to thank the strange surgeon. Later it rankled him that his price had dropped and his face was obscured, even though he preferred the shadows. He bravely complained once the physical evidence was discarded.

Robin liked that Chopper's little blue nose still poked through all else, and it was just as well that she took a quick den-den snapshot to show him that his bounty had increased, for a second, into sextuple figures. Why wasn't Broook's included? Maybe Law was scared of the second sight and soul the man possessed. The flower was quite poetic, really. What more would she expect from a man from the North Blue? Doflamingo had fostered and festered the passion of Dressrosa, after all. And Sanji festered and fostered his love for herself and Nami.

Barto, dusting the room. Polishing the room. Polishing the frames. Dusting and polishing the hinges of the frames, and wiping the glass so it sparkled, initially fully approved of the small altar in front of the gallery already dedicated to the Strawhats. You could never have too much love. Then. Then he noticed the empty frames. His gaze swung to the autographs. All there. It swung to Luffy's bounty poster. Still there. As was Sanji's strange "Wanted Alive" bounty. Robin's, Zoro's and Brook's.

"Aarghhh!"

God-Usopp-Sama's was missing.

"Aa _rghh_!"

Chopper sempai's cute little face was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah-ha- _Ha_ -ahhh! Treason!"

Franky sempai and Nami sempai were no longer all-powerful and sexy in their frames, Franky being the sexier of the pair.

He neared the lotus flower, and though he had some respect for its egalitarian nature and. had to admit, the ship was a little bit more peaceful now that Usopp and Franky were buddies again, the images on the petals were of _his_ idols and now they were cut up and dismembered and _defaced_ into something that honoured them all, but didn't shine the spotlight on any one of them.

AND. Yep. Nope. _But_. Yes. Yeah. _What?_ His fang. The corner of his tattoo. _His_ poster had been used to make the whole! That made him feel all hot and excited. He was in such close proximity to such an infamous and benevolent crew. BUT, that was _his_ bounty poster, and the price had just gone up! Now it was just a strip of paper. He'd pulp whoever was responsible into papier mâché goo once he found them.

* * *

 **oOOo**

* * *

"So, he takes the lotus, very carefully I'm told, and turns it over."

"And your Jolly Roger's on the goddamned bottom, right?"

Law shrugged, grinned and flicked his nails, and then his eyes across at Marco. "I offered to teach them how to make origami shuriken."

Nothing sweeter than a Phoenix chuckle. "Did they take you up on it?" He really hoped Law would teach him.

"Think I was lucky not to find myself in the ocean, though Usopp seemed keen on learning."

"Maybe you deserve some of Barto's vitriol."

"Probably."

"How'd it all end up?"

* * *

 **oOOo**

* * *

The Barto Club sure were slow with breakfast. It'd been a whole five minutes since Luffy had last eaten. He barrelled into the bounty poster room, where Rooster was holding Torao by the jacket frontand shouting at him about something. There wasn't much of a jacket left after Mingo and Trebol had played wardrobe change with Law, maybe Barto shouldn't be doing that. Luffy could see that Law was about to shamble the fuck out of there, and that was fine. His stomach growled. All he wanted was food. Preferably meat, but anything'd do.

"Hey! Barto's copying Franky. Yesterday Usopp could hardly breathe, and now it's your turn, Torao." Law turned to face him, all hunched and glaring, and kind of purple. Luffy had almost got part of the reasoning for transforming the posters into origami right, without knowing anything of the context or situation.

"Hmm." Luffy homed in on the flower. It reminded him of the mochi cakes placed outside homes or on the graves when New year rolled around. All that old timey respect to ancestors and New year's and the worlds his gramps and Tsuru and Kureha came from. Wouldn't hurt to try, right? Makino had told him not to eat the mochi or mikan, and Garp had thrown him into the jungle when he hadn't listened to her. That flower thing looked a bit like filo pastry, or a sculpted radish. Maybe it was packed full of sweet nuts and honey and other sugary things. Sweet was better than radish.

His long rubbery arms reached around the brawling crews — he guessed it wasn't really fair that Law was without his, but he was the one who'd chosen to lone wolf it. The filo pastry was lighter than he expected, but a good cook could do that. Sanji's pieces were like walking on air sometimes, and that was funny, cos' Sanji did walk on air.

It was a bit papery to taste, bland, nothing sweet to it at all. Didn't hit the spot one little bit. Oh well. He took a last look at Law and Barto and left the room. Who was their cook again? He'd given him half the Going Luffy Sempai supplies when he last asked (five minutes ago). Maybe he could convince him to hand over the remaining.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for reading.** Law chopping off Shanks' other arm is in chapter 8 of Gimcracks. The fic has an E-rating, but that chapter is not explicit. Law chopping off his own head in an experiment is also in Gimcracks, chapter 15. Again, not an explicit chapter, but the fic is. The matchstick model Law made can be found in chapter chapter 27 of Gimcracks. I'd rate that chapter T-M.


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